Using the Numenera Ruin Mapping Engine with the Sun Below
In Jade Colossus: Ruins of the Prior Worlds, Monte Cook Games has come up with a ruin mapping system that allows you to flesh out parts of the Ninth World that you don’t have details for. Most of the book is about the Jade Colossus, but like many Numenera ruins, it’s enormous and there is no point in detailing hundreds of rooms and corridors that players will never see. The ruin mapping engine lets you roll a few dice and create weird Numenera environs on the fly.
Let’s roll some dice!
Example One: A 5m x 10m rectangular chamber with a machine that grinds small objects into drit. It has one exit sealed with a force field, and two additional exits.
Example Two: A sealed vault (seals are level 7 with level 7 defenses that do 7 points of energy damage). The interior is made of self-repairing level 8 synth. The vault is 15m x 30m and contains a vortex of energy that swirls above a raised circular platform surrounded by complex (level 8) machinery. The vortex is painfully bright and hot, and induces a sense of awe in observers. The vortex is a wormhole that leads directly to the sun.
The Sun Below
Using the ruin mapping engine to flesh out when players go “off the path” in any Sun Below adventure is perfect. You can roll dice, or use the tables for inspiration.
Then use the background of the adventures as window dressing for your on-the-fly creations. In example two above, that vortex obviously leads not to some lame sun at the center of the solar system but directly to the Sun Below!
The Sun Below: City on the Edge
Like the Jade Colossus, Urbamorr, the city on the edge, is enormous. Unlike the Jade Colossus, it’s mostly inhabited. Use the ruin mapping engine, and 50% of the time decorate the places with praithian statues, burial chambers, and enormous artwork. Above ground sections will have dh’lann features (like dream-vapor bowls), while below ground areas will feature slithik items (like floating tubes of blood).
Since the city is inhabited, 50% of the time use a creature as the main feature, the rest of the time roll as normal. If you do have a creature, 50% of the time use dh’lanns, floaters, praithians, praithian war snakes, pyronic sentries, or slithiks.
The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady
Liluna is also massive, and, like the Jade Colossus, mostly uninhabited. 50% of the time you should decorate the areas you roll up with displays that show lido automatons, Liluna in flight, gibbering murken, Lebby with her red bouncy ball, or an aspect of Storm. Depending on what's going on in the stricken moon, you could show the forces of Liluna or of Golthnor doing well or doing poorly.
If you roll up a creature, 50% of the time use a child of Golthnor, cultists of Golthnor, data demons, gibbering murken, lido automatons, Lebby, skratts, Storm, or synites. Look at the Orb Encounters section of the adventure for ideas.
Dread Unicorn PDF Guarantee
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It’s as simple as that. We want to support local gaming stores the best we can, and we don’t want our fans to feel they have to choose between loving us (by buying a Print+PDF bundle at IPR) or loving their local game store. Why not love both?
With the Dread Unicorn Games Retailer PDF Guarantee, you don’t have to choose! But we WILL need you to confirm that you’ve purchased the book. Drop us a line (or have your Friendly Local Game Store do it!) at john AT dreadunicorngames DOT com and show us your proof of purchase. Scanned purchase receipts are the best way to do this, but we’ll take the word of your FLGS as equivalent. And while you’re at it, tell us where you bought the book, and make sure they know that the Dread Unicorn Games Retailer PDF Guarantee sealed the deal!
We are also a part of the Bits & Mortar publisher coalition. Head on over to that site and find out who else offers free PDFs together with the books you buy from your FLGS!
Icons and Conditions Review
Icons and Conditions cards for the 13th Age Roleplaying Game has been reviewed by The Redacted Files.
"I really like using cards to track conditions... focus can stay on combat and not looking up rules."
"Icon cards are a clever addition to 13th Age game play... These cards make it easy to track who you have a relationship with and what the roll was at a glance."
More Dread Unicorn at IPR
With help from our friends at Indie Press Revolution, you can buy more than just print books at IPR, you can buy PDFs as well. Check it out!
Indie Press Revolution is also our distributor into game stores. Check out an IPR game store near you! They should have the Dread Unicorn Games title you want, but if it's not in stock, ask them to order it from IPR.
Dread Unicorn on the Move
Here's what we're working on now.
The Gods Have Spoken
The Gods Have Spoken is our focus right now. Alison has edited over half the manuscript, and I am inputting her changes. Once that's done, we'll move to layout. We'll add all the art, then do another round of edits. Then we'll ship PDFs, black and white softcover, and color hard cover. Once all the Kickstarter backers have their orders shipped, we'll make these available.
The Gray World
After early playtest feedback, we're trimming the adventure a bit, and giving advice on pacing. It's our intention that you can run this in one session, including as a convention game. We also have advice for those who want to expand it a bit and don't mind letting the fun continue past a single session.
The Gods and Icons Upgrade Pack
For those who don't know, this will be a PDF full of new art of the gods, new monsters tied to the gods, and other bits from The Gods Have Spoken that work in Gods and Icons.
I've been taking Matt Evert's 5E monsters from The Gods Have Spoken and creating 13th Age monsters out of them. I'm not trying to replicate each facet and wrinkle of the 5E versions, my goal is to hit the high points and make them fun 13th Age creatures. I'm not using an mechanical algorithm, I just pick a level and try to capture Matt's flavor.
Gods and Icons Fiction
Our last bit for the Gods and Icons kickstarter got bumped a bit. One writer had to bow out, but it's all written now. Two short stories by me (one of a wizard with a new, and unusual new servant, and one where two icons negotiate over the fate of a town tainted by hell) and an epic pirate poem by Connor Marvin. (Connor worked on Unholy Places and playable races in Gods and Icons and is nationally known in slam poetry.) We just need time to pass it through editorial and layout.
Gods and Icons PDFs on Indie Press Revolution
We are working with our friends at Indie Press Revolution to put our Gods and Icons PDFs for sale on their store. They should be up soon.
More Card Decks
Icons and Conditions is doing well, so we're looking at other card decks to help your game run smoother. We're looking at more 13th Age decks, at 5E decks, and Cypher System decks. Stay tuned!
The Sun Below: That's How the Light Gets In
At long last, we'll be returning to the land of The Sun Below, for the last in our trilogy of Numenera adventures. You've seen The City on the Edge, and the Sleeping Lady. Now see what happens to the lands below when the actual sun of the Sun Below starts to die?
Light Gets In is still in brainstorming mode, but one idea we like is not to have one big capstone ending, but three endings. With one ending, a published adventure can have lots of player options, but at some point, you have to get the players to that ending. This creates a funnel where all roads lead to the climax. At the climax, they win or lose, which gives you two possible endings.
We're going with three epic capstone endings. Depending on what your players are doing, what they want, and what seems fun to the GM, near the end of the adventure the party will head to one of the endings. And again, they can win or lose, but they'll be able to steer their path right up to what kind of climax they are going for.
Another idea is to use all original creatures, cyphers, artifacts, nothing from the Numenera core book. That way you can use the adventure as a source book for your own adventures.
Nothing is in stone yet.
Icons and Condition Cards!
Just the thing for every 13th Age Roleplaying Game session. Got a 6 on an icon relationship roll? Put out a card, 6 up. A PC has a fear condition? Hand out the fear card!
On sale now!
Check out how to use the cards. Very simple.
Icons and Conditions
While I'm waiting on our editor to do a pass through The Gods Have Spoken, I've started designing the first Gods and Icons card deck: Icons and Conditions.
Icons and Conditions
I love Adobe InDesign. This is design mode, the real cards won't have all those guide lines.
Icon Cards
The icon cards are for when a player gets a 5 or a 6 on an icon relationship roll. You give them the card, and they put it 5 or 6 up, depending on what they rolled. If they got a 5 and a 6, they put it sidewards, and once a relationship roll is used up, they turn the card with the remaining roll up.
Even if you use different icons, it's easy to map those from Gods and Icons to your own icons.
Condition Cards
Condition cards will contain text describing the nine conditions found in the 13th Age Roleplaying Game. You can pass these out to players who get stunned or whatnot, or put them in front of you to remind yourself how these conditions work.
Lots of Cards
Their will be multiples of cards so you can give out the same icon or condition to different players.
Coming Soon
We'll be using Drive Thru Cards for printing these, and we'll have print-and-play as well.
Distractions, Obstacles, and Blowback
I backed the Unknown Armies 3rd edition kickstarter (of course), but after a quick glace at the PDFs (cool!) I got busy and put them away. Then the hardback books arrived.
While I can't wait to play it, I don't have to wait to steal from it. Hoist the jolly roger and prepare to plunder Distractions, Obstacles, and Blowback.
Any RPG can use them. I'm running a Dracula Dossier campaign right now, and uses for these concepts in our campaign to fight Dracula, blow stuff up, and make the world safe for Malbec wineries just jumped out at me. "Use me now!" they said.
In between sessions the GM gets to scheme ways to thwart the player's plans. You can put them on note cards, and once the game starts, you have things to throw at your players. In this way they are similar to spotlight cards, only meaner.
Distractions
Distractions are aimed at a specific PC. They aim to pull the PC away from the main plot (and the group!) and into a sub-plot that ties in with what the character values. Background information is great fodder for distractions.
For example, a druid in a standard fantasy RPG is a protector of nature. You know the party is planning on raiding the Dread Tower to stop the local Necromancer from raising an undead army. But on the way, a sacred grove is under attack by woodcutters. A forest spirit calls out for help.
So what does the druid do? Leave the party? Convince the party to save the sacred grove, even if it means the Dread Tower will be that much harder? Leave the grove to die in order to fight a greater threat? Any choice is good, as it deepens the character. And any choice will lead to blowback.
I wouldn't use a distraction if it was likely to make the campaign fail or lose the fun-factor. In this example, druids aren't your undead fighting specialists, a delayed assault on the Dread Tower will be harder, but not impossible, and the destruction of a sacred grove is likely to prey on the druid's conscience but not deliver a fatal wound to the party.
Have a distraction or three ready for each PC. You don't have to use them, they'll be good in a future session.
Obstacles
Obstacles are simpler than distractions. The party is trying to do something. Some other group (or groups) want to stop them. So they send people or things to do just that. Important places have guards. Troublemakers attract unfriendly attention. Obstacles are your standard RPG encounters. You just want to have a few on hand and ready to go.
A dungeon crawl has it's traps and dungeon denizens. A Night's Black Agents game has it's vampyramid. A thieves' guild campaign has security and rivals. A political campaign has factions and dirty tricks. A high school amateur detective gang has cliques and shady characters.
You've got this. A few extra obstacles on hand in case you need them is a good idea.
Blowback
Blowback is the consequence of the characters' previous actions. It can work as a distraction or an obstacle, but it's a result of what the PCs have already been up to.
If the druid let the sacred grove die to go fight undead, they could find themselves haunted by undead spirits of the grove. You could foreshadow this for a number of session, first with bad dreams, then sightings in the distance, and finally a throw-down.
If the PCs bombed the house to get the vampire, who owned the house? Who was there during the bombing? Now a Renfield backed with a pack of ghouls is on their trail.
As the campaign goes on, more and more of the action can come from blowbacks. Just don't overdo so much that the players feel all their actions turn the world to ashes. Let some of their victories remain shining victories, while at the same time show them what they do matters.
Playtesters Wanted
Want to Playtest The Gods Have Spoken? And The Gray World? Can you get feedback back to us by July 1st? Email us!
When a Big Scene Becomes Small, Part II
Social Scenes That End Before Their Time
The players come upon a damaged automaton amid evidence of a brutal fight.
"I need your help. I have a way to protect automatons against turning into killing machines, but I can't repair myself. Can you help repair me?"
The players look at the GM. "Nope. We're moving on. Next room."
Just like with the action scenes, much of the time if the players exit a social scene right after they enter it, the story can continue without problems.
In the example above, the automaton might have some core clues it would have happily divulged. Now the GM is faced with letting the PCs wander aimlessly with little hope of solving the mystery, sticking the clues in the next scene (where they might not make much sense), or keeping the scene going.
In this particular case, dialog with the automaton will lead into a core flashback scene you really want to run.
There are a few tricks to keeping a social scene going.
Hook Them With Partial Information
"Wait, I can tell you why the mutant bird-people are waking the ghost in the machine!" Hooks will sometimes get the players to pay attention.
Just look at this line, it lets the players know the bird-folk are up to something, and the machine coming to life has a ghost in it, whatever that means. This is bait to get them intrigued and back in dialog with the automaton.
Pretend to Forgive Them
If the players were rude or threatening to an important NPC, world-logic will probably suggest they shut the PCs out and refuse to engage. But it's your NPC, you can always come up with a reason for them to want to continue the interaction.
Say the party has just insulted a princess who is key to the story. "I suppose I need you more than you need me. Just listen for a moment, my father is not to be trusted, but he can be influenced."
The PCs can continue to discuss what's going on with the princess, plus, you can always create a price for the PCs' insolence. She could withhold resources, information, or demand they kneel and beg forgiveness when the PCs realize they really do need her help.
Second Chances
Have the NPC reappear later, perhaps this time in better shape to convince the PCs to listen.
Back to our automaton up top, the PCs could return to town and find not only has the automaton repaired itself, but it's the center of attention at a town square meeting. "And those are the people who left me there, broken and helpless. All I wanted to do was help them. They still don't know what's going on in the machine."
Feelings
If the players exited out of an emotional scene, for example one in which the King dies in the Princess's arms, you might not want to skip this because you think it sets up the tone of the next scene. But the PCs move on.
"The Princess comes to you, her fine silks soiled by her father's blood. 'It's over. I held him as he past. We spoke of many things, when I was a girl, when my first flying serpent bit the butler, and what you did. In his last moments, he told me how your forcing him out of the dream-world broke him. But he did not believe my mother would break so easily."
When a Big Scene Becomes Small, Part I
Sometimes when you are GMing, scenes end quicker than you expect. The PCs enter the scene, and immediately trigger the exit. In most cases this isn't a problem. You find out what scene they want to do next and make it happen. Ripping through an adventure at warp speed can be fun.
Sometimes it is a problem.
Sometimes a big action scene turns into a yawn.
Maybe the PCs got lucky. Or the players were just that good. Which is wonderful most of the time, but this was the boss you been foreshadowing for four sessions. And the players don't look pumped, they look sad because they were expecting an exciting challenge, and found a marshmallow.
Extending Combat
A major fight that ends in one round feels anti-climatic. Some players won't mind, but many will.
There's a few tricks to keep an important fight going. The trick is to not negate the players' victory, just keep the fun going a while longer.
Reinforcements You already have the stats for your opponents, and as they are mowed down, have more of the same show up. To preserve the player's victory, use less of them, and/or have them show up at some disadvantage.
- The PCs hear the reinforcements coming, allowing them time (1 round!) to prepare.
- The reinforcements have to climb up a ladder to get to the PCs.
- The reinforcements are second stringers, and have less hit points.
- The reinforcements are quick to flee if the PCs are obviously winning. This lets you keep the fight going, but not turn it into a slog.
Fake Boss! The boss you planned for just went down, and then you have the *real* boss you just made up step in to continue the fight. To give the PCs their victory, the first boss drops an important item, something that has "made to fight the next-boss" written all over it. The anti-undead sword-cane of doom, the reveal-invisible dust of St. Silverius, the armor shattering bolt of victory...
Or the victory can be tactical. They have the "real-boss" at a disadvantage, and you give them a bonus to show them that. For example, you could give them advantage in 5E, increment the escalation die in 13th Age, or lower the difficulty for the PCs by 1 in Numenera.
Great, but what is this new boss? Who can make up a boss on the fly? Not me; even in a rules light game like Numenera, a boss should offer unique challenges.
Your choices are to find one quickly or make one quickly.
Find one from an adventure, bestiary, or other game supplement. That could work, but might take a while. What's the next boss you planned on using? Bring them on now? Or a weaker version of the next boss, just add a few weaknesses? This could be good foreshadowing. It helps if the two bosses are thematically related to each other. Cultists to the same dark god, dragons working for the same queen, and so on.
Jack in the Box This is easy and can be a lot of fun for the players. They bring down the demon, and they look at each other. "That was easy." Too easy.
Make one or more creatures get back up after they fall dead. If they are not undead, have them rise as undead. Drop their offensive and defensive powers a notch, give them typical undead features, and resume the battle.
If they are undead, you could make it obvious that a "dark ray came from the unholy altar and when it touched the creature, it jumped up, ready to continue the battle." Now the PCs know they will have to stop the altar from doing that or this could go on and on. Since you just made this up, let whatever crazy idea they come up with work.
I built a Jack in the Box into my 13th Age adventure The Tower in the Mist: Too Easy? Consider Fulvos coming back as a zombie mutant dragon the round after he goes down, with half hit points and -1 on all attacks, defenses, and damage.
13th Age is a high hit points game, so I cut the zombie Fulvos' hit points in half. He's up and undead, just long enough to scare the players and make the encounter fun. And who doesn't like a zombie mutant dragon?
Extending a Chase
Say a big exciting chase is over because your PCs caught the vampire with the horse/Mercedes/hover-bike in the first block, and you wanted it to drag the party to a major plot point that has to be outside town?
You can make the chase continue, but you need to do so in a way you don't negate their victory.
If it's not the vampire itself that's the goal, you could have the creature throw the magic item/deed/holo-chip to a confederate who carries it away. The party still has a high value prisoner, who may have other valuables, and they can follow the confederate.
If the vampire is the goal, you could have it escape at great cost. The PCs might be annoyed they haven't caught it yet, but they've wounded it terribly, and made it drop something valuable. It's keeping its distance, but the PCs know they are winning.
Part II: When Social Scenes End Too Quickly
Druid Love! (5E Preview)
This 5E druid class customization is a preview from The Gods Have Spoken, a supplement for 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons. The work is still in progress, so may change before publication.
Druid: C
ircle of Life
Life is everywhere, and you are connected with all life on a mystical level. When the weave of life is cut, you use your connection to restore it and regenerate life.
Wild Healing
Starting at second level, your healing spells are more effective. Whenever you use a spell at 1st level or higher to restore hit points to a living creature, the creature regains an additional hit points equal to 2 + the spell’s level.
Change Regeneration
Starting at second level, when you use you Wild Shape ability you heal yourself a number of hit points equal to your constitution bonus + your level.
Life Circle Spells
At 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th levels you gain access to spells imbued with your devotion to the web of life.
Once you gain access to a circle spell, you always have it prepared, and it doesn’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. If you gain access to a spell that isn’t on the druid spell list, that spell becomes a druid spell for you.
| Druid Level | Circle Spells |
| 3rd | cure wounds, goodberry |
| 5th | lesser restoration, revivify |
| 7th | death ward, locate creature |
| 9th | mass cure wounds, reincarnate |
Protected Healer
Beginning at 6th level, healing spells you cast on others heal you as well. Whenever you use a spell at 1st level or higher to restore hit points to a creature other than you, you regain hit points equal to 2 + the spell’s level.
Healing
Beast
Beginning at 10th level, you can cast any of your spells that restore hit points to a creature in any shape you take on using Wild Shape. You can perform the somatic and verbal components of a druid spell while in Beast Shape, but you are not able to provide the material components.
Enhanced Regeneration
Beginning at 14th level, you always have regenerate prepared, and it doesn’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. When you cast regenerate, the target regains 4d12 + 20 hit points instead of 4d8 + 15. For the duration of the spell, the target regains 2 hit points per round instead of 1.
When you cast regenerate, you get the spell slot you used back at the end of your next short or long rest.
Coming Attractions
What’s Next from Dread Unicorn Games? 
You should always be able to see what’s for sale here: https://dreadunicorngames.com/shop-for-games/
- Right now we are working on The Gods Have Spoken, a 5E supplement full of gods, creatures, factions, magic, and more. If you missed the Kickstarter it should be available for sale soon. https://dreadunicorngames.com/games/the-gods-have-spoken/
- Our 5E intro adventure that shows off The Gods Have Spoken is The Gray World. This one-shot is the perfect tool to introduce players and GMs to our new content. https://dreadunicorngames.com/games/the-gray-world/
- Part of The Gods Have Spoken Kickstarter is the Gods and Icons Upgrade Pack for the 13th Age Roleplaying Game. More divine art and creatures that tie in with the gods. As writers roll off of The Gods Have Spoken, some will roll onto the Upgrade Pack.
- Then we have That’s How the Light Gets in, a Numenera adventure for all tiers. The Sun Below is failing, and it’s up to the players to get it back on line. Which involves visiting more than a few dimensions. https://dreadunicorngames.com/games/thats-how-the-light-gets-in/
- After that will be an adventure (name TBD) in two versions. One for 5E, and one for 13th This will be the start of a number of linked adventures. One link between these adventures is intrigue. If you can’t win a straight up fight with everyone, you’ll need to win some allies and maybe run a few con games. This will be Kickstarted, so watch for it!
Surprise!
Almost every roleplaying game that supports combat scenes has a rule for surprise. The surprised side gets some disadvantage, usually for the first round. Today I’m talking about when the player characters get surprised by the GM’s characters (NPCs or GMCs depending on your system), not the other way around.
Why bother with surprise? How does it translate into fun at your table?
- The default kind of fun is a more challenging combat. This is a great way to stress the PCs, and is particularly fun if the players are getting just a little too cocky. How long has it been since the players sweated the outcome of a combat? Standing there with targets on their faces while the opposition gets free shots is sure to get their attention.
- Surprise can help in world building. Maybe here in drow territory, drow have ambush points set up all over the place. You can tilt the odds of whatever surprise mechanics your system has to make it favor the drow in these encounters. As the players venture deep underground, drow ambushes become part of their world. “We go north, we need to be extra careful for drow surprises.”
- Surprise can help in shared world building. If the dice dictate the PCs are surprised, you can ask the players “Why are you surprised?” They can come up with all sorts of explanations you would never think of: “I’m so tired. Henrik’s ghost stories didn’t let me sleep last night.”
- Surprise can help build story. An antagonist might run ahead of the PCs, helping potential adversaries set up ambushes. Maybe it’s because they feel the PCs have cheated them. The GM can leave clues such as “this is the third ambush in a row that has the hallmarks of a Dr. Wild setup. The doctor sure seems to have it in for you.”
- Avoiding surprise by roleplaying can be rewarding. The players may meet someone who knows about the ambush ahead. If the players make friends, they find out about it. If the players are all murder-hobos, they’ll never learn that information.
- Avoiding surprise can be a good use of resources. Maybe use of a magic spell can reveal the ambush ahead. In a game like 13th Age, spending an icon boon could have icon send a message about the ambush. In a 5E type of game, a PC that is part of a faction may get the info as a faction favore. In a GUMSHOE game, players can spend their Sense Trouble points. The players can feel very good that they avoided walking into that trap, by spending a resource wisely to avoid it.
- In some systems, surprising the PCs can end up giving them resources. In Numenera and other Cypher System games, the GM can just declare the party is surprised as part of a group-wide GM Intrusion. Each PC then gets an experience point.
How have you used combat surprises to make your game more fun?
Big Book of Maps
Here at Dread Unicorn Games, we like RPG maps. Maybe you do too? Friend of the Dread Unicorn, Justin Andrew Mason, has got a Kickstarter you might want to take a look at. Maps for your table, maps for your VTT. Check it out!
GMs Day
GM's Day Sale at DriveThruRPG on all Dread Unicorn Games products! Now thru March 13th.PDFs 30% off, and savings on print as well. http://bit.ly/DreadUnicorn
GameStorm
I'll be going to GameStorm in Portland, March 30th - April 2nd. It's a great con, so if you can go, stop by and say hi! I'll be running some Tower in the Mist fun. Join in!
Dread Unicorn Games will be sold by the amazing folk at the Guardian Games table. Check out all the great games at Guardian Games!
Here's my Tower in the Mist gaming schedule:
- Thursday 7pm
- Friday 11:30am
- Friday 7pm
- Saturday 7pm
- Sunday 11:30am
Here's my panels:
- Thursday 4pm: Selling you game on DriveThruRPG and related sites.
- Saturday 4pm: Gaming Design discussion: Layout and more
Sunday 10am: Inclusive Game Design
Edit: Inclusive Game Design has been canceled, so don't look for it.
Pregenerated Characters for Tower in the Mist
We've added a link to download the pre-gens for Tower in the Mist. What's different? These are for double sided printing, they all have the icons on the back. Enjoy!